The Gay Falcon

Gay Laurence reluctantly agrees to abandon his Ladies' Man persona to mollify his fiancée. He and his sidekick Goldie quietly adopt sober stockbroker roles. The change signals a more conventional, subdued life that will be tested by the events to come.

Maxine Wood asks for his help through her assistant Helen Reed, and Gay cannot resist the opportunity to help. He agrees to attend a party to network with potential clients, despite his earlier reluctance. The invitation marks a shift from personal to professional engagement.

At the party, Elinor Benford grows irritated when she realizes why Gay changed his mind about attending. She retaliates by dancing with Manuel Retana and flinging a flower toward Gay. Vera Gardner asks Gay to dance and discreetly offers him her diamond before leaving.

Moments after Gardner leaves with the diamond, a gunshot sounds and Gardner is found dead. Goldie sees the killer making his getaway, sowing the seeds of suspicion around Gay. The party devolves into a murder investigation.

Detectives Bates and Grimes escort Goldie to the police station on suspicion of murder. Gay persuades Inspector Waldeck to release Goldie so they can flush out the real killer. He and Helen then depart to confront Maxine, leaving Goldie in the car.

While Gay and Helen are away, Gardner's killer Noel Weber abducts Goldie. Weber orders Goldie to call Gay to offer a trade for the diamond, tying the case directly to Gay.

Weber is shot, and Goldie is discovered near a dead body. The chaotic sequence deepens the mystery and pushes Gay to push harder on his deductions. The true chain of the crime begins to surface.

Gay theorizes that Gardner engineered the theft to collect insurance and that the flower signal pointed to the thief who would receive the jewel, which should have gone to Retana. The motive appears to be financial rather than personal. His suspicions guide the next steps of the investigation.

Gay and Helen break into Retana's apartment and hide when the owner returns. Retana opens a secret compartment to check if the jewel has been found, and Gay retrieves a gun from the compartment. Police later confirm that this gun is the murder weapon.

Retana goes to Gay's apartment, ties up Gay's servant Jerry, and demands the diamond at gunpoint. He is frightened off when he mistakes Helen for the police, allowing Gay to stay ahead of the plot.

Gay and Inspector Waldeck stand guard as Maxine sleeps, but Retana enters through a window and lunges. They burst in, Retana collapses and dies, and a hypodermic needle is found on the floor. Gay prevents Maxine from stepping on it, preserving key fingerprints.

Gay reveals that Maxine Wood, her husband Weber, and Retana orchestrated the thefts, explaining how the needle carried incriminating fingerprints and how Goldie's kidnapping tied them together. The confession ties together all the earlier clues and ends the case.